Viola's Ventanas, near SeaWorld San Antonio, is the third San Antonio restaurant to be opened by the Barrios family.

Viola's Ventanas, near SeaWorld San Antonio, is the third San Antonio restaurant to be opened by the Barrios family.

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Louis Barrios looks over the construction progress at Viola's Ventanas restaurant being opened by he and his two sisters, Teresa Barrios Ogden and Diana Barrios Trevino. The restaurant is named in honor of their mother, Viola Barrios who was murdered April 24, 2008.

Louis Barrios looks over the construction progress at Viola's Ventanas restaurant being opened by he and his two sisters, Teresa Barrios Ogden and Diana Barrios Trevino. The restaurant is named in honor of

Viola's Ventanas restaurant is the third San Antonio restaurant to be opened by Louis Barrios and his sisters Diana Barrios Trevino and Teresa Barrios Ogden. The new location at 9660 Westover Hills features a patio/deck that is 9000 sq. ft. and the entire project is to honor their mother who was murdered on April 24, 2008.

Viola's Ventanas restaurant is the third San Antonio restaurant to be opened by Louis Barrios and his sisters Diana Barrios Trevino and Teresa Barrios Ogden. The new location at 9660 Westover Hills features a

Teresa Barrios Ogden and her sister, Diana Barrios Trevino, talk in the still-under construction Violas Vrntanas restaurant named in honor of their mother.

Teresa Barrios Ogden and her sister, Diana Barrios Trevino, talk in the still-under construction Violas Vrntanas restaurant named in honor of their mother.

Photo: For The San Antonio Express-News

Barrios family redeemed by 'Amor, Fe y Alegría'

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Louie Barrios slipped a disc into his car's CD player to hear the familiar voice of his late mother. It's a source of comfort.

“I just love to hear her laugh,” he said. “It's like she's not even gone.”

Five years have passed since renowned restaurateur Viola Barrios, 76, was murdered in her home on April 24, 2008. Her son recalls in graphic detail how she was fatally shot with a bow and arrow, then burned. But he does not want her remembered for the last 10 seconds of her life.

Barrios and his two sisters hope to open their third restaurant in May as a tribute to a woman who went into business for her family but made an impact on politicians, chefs and high-profile entertainers, and died while San Antonio celebrated Fiesta. Her three grown children said they want to share the spirit of the petite matriarch who taught them how to live.

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Many San Antonians were moved, and some perplexed, when the Barrios family reached out in forgiveness, even support, to the family of a young man charged with capital murder. His parents — friends and next door neighbors of Viola Barrios — sat with her family at the funeral.

Because of intense publicity, the trial was held in Victoria. According to testimony, Joe Estrada Jr., then 18, stole her car and credit cards and went on a spending spree after he killed her.

Defense attorneys argued that Estrada was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. His father told the jury he should have gotten Estrada help. Estrada was given a life sentence without parole.

Window of her soul

Today, the three Barrios siblings seem to have only happy memories of their mother. Louie, the family's high-energy entrepreneur, has promised the new restaurant on 5 acres near SeaWorld, Viola's Ventanas (Windows), will be “the most beautiful restaurant any of you have ever seen.”

“If you looked into the window of my mother's soul, you'd see someone who cooked to express her love for you,” he said.

Viola's Ventanas has cost “quite a bit more” than the $2.5 million, 4.7-acre restaurant La Hacienda de Los Barrios, which opened in 2004, and will be a grand oasis, Louie Barrios said.

He and his sisters now oversee a nonprofit, Viola's Huge Heart Foundation, that awards scholarships and charitable aid to “good, hard-working individuals ... who face insurmountable obstacles in life.” Her eight grandchildren have written papers in school about their grandmother and the impact she had and are getting more active in the family business.

The family recalls blissful trips with Viola to her small hometown of Bustamante, in northern Mexico, and fried chicken or calabacita she made, just for them, at her restaurant.

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“There are so many things about her, so many good memories,” her son said. “You could give us more, but the cup is full. We're satisfied.”

Love, faith and joy

Yet the eyes of all three well with tears as they speak of their father, José C. Barrios, a skilled journalist and radio announcer killed by a drunken driver on a rain-slick highway in 1975.

The family, scared and devastated, slept together for months. Diana, 12, and Louie, 15, shared a king-size bed with Viola. Teresa, 16, slept on the floor.

Their dad, with health issues and a leg hurt in a boyhood fall that never grew properly, had often hinted at a day he would no longer be around. But after he died at 46, Louie spent years deadening his pain with beer and cocaine before becoming a Pentecostal Christian.

To make a life for her family, Viola Barrios invested $3,000 to open Los Barrios in 1979, at Jones and Avenue B, downtown, before moving in 1980 into an old Dairy Queen at its current site, 4223 Blanco Road. The work was hard, and a $3.95 deluxe plate was the most expensive menu item.

But she shared her cooking skills with her children and told them to never hold a grudge or go to bed angry. They said she never cursed, and regularly prayed at an altar in her bedroom.

“After our father died, she spent 33 years preparing us for the day when she wouldn't be here,” Treviño said. “She didn't want us to be sad when that day came.”

Viola's Ventanas will have tile work and architecture resembling the McNay Art Institute; a spacious, oak-shaded patio with a music stage and kid's play area; a portrait of Viola, and one of her favorite embroidered tunics in a shadow box; and a gurgling fountain with “ Amor, Fe y Alegría” — Love, Faith and Joy — etched in granite.

“If you want to live, I mean really live, you have to have those three things,” her son said.

To that end, Louie Barrios plans someday to upload the CDs of his mother's voice onto the Internet so others can hear her telling old family stories in Spanish.